Heading into the last tournament for the Delta Region the race for angler of the year had four anglers within seven points of one another. Bill Roper and Mike Rold were tied for first with Chad Frie five points and Tim Venkus seven points behind right on the heels of the leaders. This was a dual tournament with region four and with crossovers from both regions a slip up on the part of any of the anglers could drop them in the standings in a hurry. In the end when the dust settled Mike Rold won his second straight dual tournament on the Delta and claimed his fourth angler of the year title with a weight of 20.93.
Terry Cherney really wishes now that his computer hadn’t broke down on him. “I wanted to get into both regions and I had no way of getting a hold of Jeff Green (Region 4 director) before the cut off” he explained. Terry’s computer definitely cost him big fish money and fourth place in region 4 as it was he finished third and had big fish of the tournement of 11.12. Terry caught two of his fish in a big bay using frogs and three of his fish including the big fish of the tournement flipping a beaver on tullies.
Finishing second with a limit 19.46 for five fish was Tim Venkus. Tim started local fishing frogs and then made a long run south were he flipped fish on a California 420 Beaver and a black brown jig. “I probably caught twelve keepers today.” Tim explained. I made a long run trying to get away from the boat traffic and I was able to get a couple of good keepers. I came back local in the afternoon before weigh in and caught a four pounder on a frog. He added. Tim would like to thank his sponsors Berkeley and Sunny’s Electric Marine.
Mike didn’t think he had much of a chance going into the tournement due to lost fishing time due to the death of his grandfather. Mike had to attend the funeral on Friday in Hanford and turned around and came home that night. “I was able to prefish on Thursday for a few hours and got bit on topwater.” Mike explained. “I was getting better then average size fish, just not a lot of them.” Mike caught all his fish on a Heddon Super Spook with a Kistler He66HC rod running and gunning eleven different areas. “I figured I might as well swing for the fences and hope that I could get the five big bites that I needed.” He explained. I figured that I would need over seventeen pounds to have a shot at angler of the year. I didn’t think I had a shot at winning the tournament especially after losing a five pounder and a three pounder first thing in the morning. I just kept grinding it out and was blessed to get a seven plus pounder at around ten o’clock at that point I thought I had a chance. I always wanted to win one of the duel tournaments and to win two in a row is just incredible! Mike would like to thank his sponsors Kistler Rods, Edge Products “makers of Hot Sauce fish attractant” Outdoor Sportsman in Stockton and Bobby D’s lures.
Chad Frie finished fourth with a limit of 17.16. “ I caught ten keepers today on 7in Mission fish swim baits off the bank in weeds and frogs very shallow in the afternoon.” Chad caught his fish in the central Delta.
Tony Mello finished sixth with a limit of 13.85.
Art Holman finished fifth in Region 1 with a limit of 14.64.
